Stocks vault higher on upbeat earnings reports from Walmart, Cisco

Stocks vaulted higher Thursday, with the Dow rising by triple digits after upbeat earnings from two blue chips, as investors weighed the latest developments on the trade front after President Donald Trump appeared to target China telecommunications group Huawei Technologies Co. with an emergency declaration against threats to U.S. technology.

Meanwhile, economic data on the U.S. labor and housing markets came in better than expected, offsetting worries over trade.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have bounced back over the past three sessions to erase the ground lost in a Monday rout triggered by an escalation of the U.S.-China tariff battle. Both indexes are now slightly positive on the week, while the Dow has trimmed its weekly decline to almost break even.

Global equities have proven resilient after the Trump administration fired a fresh salvo in a trade spat with China late Wednesday, issuing an executive order that bans telecom equipment from countries considered “foreign adversaries”. The move appeared to target Huawei, which has been under pressure from the White House for months.

Additionally, the Commerce Department said that it would add Huawei to a list of entities that engage in “activities contrary to U.S. national security and/or foreign policy interests,” which could greatly restrict its purchases of crucial American-made chips.

Other corners of the Trump administration were offering reasons for markets to hope that a U.S.-China trade deal of some sort was